Means for preventing shifting of loads in railway cars and the like



Aug. 25, 1931. 'JJB. CHALM ERS 1,320,729

MEANS FOR FREVENTING SHIFTING OF LOADS IN RAILWAY CARS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 8. 1950 INVENTOI? Wm BY fiw 6i 5 htua' HTTURNEYS 0 strips of wood or Patented Aug. 25, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JAMES B. CHALMERS, 0F GARY, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO THE YOUNGSTOWN SHEET TUBE COMPANY, OF YOUNGSTOWN. OHIO, A CORPORATION 01 OHIO MEANS FOR PREVENTING SHIFTING O1: LOADS IN RAILWAY CABS AND THE LIKE Application filed September 8, 1980. Serial No. 480,870.

In the shipment of certain classes of goods in railway cars and the like it is necessary to very firmly brace the goods after they are loaded into the car to prevent their shifting is about therein when the car is in motion.

Such bracing is required by the railroad authorities and is also obviously necessary to prevent damage to the goods and to the'car, particularly when the former are of relatively heavy nature.

My invention therefore relates to the art of bracing loads of goods under these conditions and while it may in connection with numerous sorts and classes of articles, it is particularly applicable to the bracing of loads consisting of a plurality of similar relatively heavy packages such, for example, as packages of tin plates or metallic sheets of comparatively small size and I shall therefore herein refer more especially to the employment of the invention for that purpose. 1

Tin plates or metal sheets of the class to which I have referred are ordinarily pre- -T pared for shipment by piling the sheets one upon another until a bundle about eighteen inches high is formed and then binding the sheets together into a unit with wire or the like, a platform of wood or the like being frequently placed beneath the bottom sheet and bound into the package. At other times the sheets are placedin suitable wooden boxes which are nailed up or bound with wire preparatory to shipment.

These packages of sheets or the boxes containing the latter are then plaoed side by side in rows on thefloor of the car in the opposite ends thereof, adjacent. packages being usually separated by suitable means such as the like, a passage or space extending across the center of the car being left vacant. The group ofpackages at either end of the car is usually then bound together as an integral whole with wires extending both longitudinally and transversely of the desirably be utilized jects of m means particularly adapted transverse braces with a view to preventing longitudinal shifting of the loads in the opposite ends of the car.

It has been my experience with load braces of the class just described that excessive amounts of lumber and of labor in bracing the load are required, and furthermore, that the movement of the car during transit frequently causes the load to shift with such force as to snap the longitudinal-timbers 'ust referred to, which are thus rendered use ess to thereafter retain the load in its pro er position in the car, whereby dama e to t e load and to the car often results rom further shifting.

Other forms of load bracing means have also been devised comprising, for example,

metal turn buckles disposed longitudinally of the car and bearing against retain' means engaging the ends of the groups 0 packages, but these as well as all other means with which I am familiar and which are satisfactorily effective to prevent the shifting of the load requireeither some such relatively expensive form of apparatus or such a large V v 80 struction that their cost is substantially proamount of time and material in their conhibitive.

It is therefore among the invention to purposes and obrovide bracing or use in association with railway box cars of the usual type employed for making shipments of the character to which I have referred and which may be relatively easily and quickly erected in the car after the loading thereof, which ,re-

uire no great amount of skill or labor for t eir erection and which are satisfactorily effective to prevent the shifting of the load in the car while the latter is in transit.

A further object of my invention is to provide bracing means of the class described which require but a relatively small amount of lumber or other material for their construction with consequent lowering of the cost thereof to the shipper.

Other purposes, objects and advantages of my invention will hereinafter be more specifically mentioned or will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof as employed in association with a railway box car loaded with tin plate, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

While my invention is particularly adapted to employment in railway cars and more especially in box cars of the usual ty e, it will be understood that it is equally app icable to railway cars of other types, to motor trucks, steamships or the like and in fact" to many other situations in which it is desired to provide a strong and secure brace satisfactorily effective to prevent the shifting of a load.

Inasmuch as a fully loaded box car braced for transport in accordance with my invention is substantially. symmetrical with respect to its transverse median line, I shall hereinafter particularly describe the arrangement of the various elements employed on one side only of this line, and it will thus be readily comprehended that the description applies generally with equal force to the arrangement at the other side of said line.

In the said drawings, Fig. 1 is a fragmentary horizontal section of a box car loaded as described, the plane of section being above the top of the load; Fig. 2 is a vertical fragmentary section on the line 2-2 in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 is a erspective View of a single bundle of sheets in which one manner of securing them together to form an individual package is clearly shown. Like characters of reference are used to indicate the same parts in the several figures. 1

Referring now more particularly to the drawlngs, the box car 1 as usual is provided with central door openings 2 and 1s loaded with a plurality of packages 3 disposed on the floor at opposite ends of the car and extending nearly to the doors thereof. It will be understood that the packages 3 each comprises a plurality of sheets which may be disposed on a small platform 4 and bound thereto by the wires 5 surroundin the entire package, corner protectors 6 being employed to prevent the wire cutting the edges of the upper sheets in the package. Between adjacent packages and extending to the 'floor of the car I provide, during the loading of the car, vertically disposed strips of wood 8 which prevent contact between adjacent packages of sheets and also near the end of the car similar vertically disposed strips 9 and a wide board 10 extending transversely of the car and resting on the floor thereof. At the opposite end of the group of packages, that is the end adjacent the doors of the car, I a so rovide laterally spaced vertical strips ll an a horizontally extending retaining bar 12, comprising a plurality of relatively heavy timbers 12 secured together, the bar bein notched at the centers of its opposite ends or a purposewhich will hereinafter appear. Extending longitudinally of the car at laterally spaced intervals and surrounding the retaining board 10 and the retaining bar 12, I arrange a plurality .of wires 14 and bind the group of packages together therewith longitudinally. Between the sides of the car and the group of packages I further provide boards 16 and bind the group of packages together transversel by a plurality of wires 17.

I also preferably secure to each side wall of the car adjacent the door and relatively near the floor as shown a horizontally extending bar 18 which is preferably nailed in place and against which a wedge 19 can bear when inserted between the bar 18 and the adjacent end of the transverse retaining bar 12, the wedges engaging the retaining bar in the notches hereinabove referred to. When the car has been loaded and the packages tied with the wires 14 and 17 as described, the wedges are driven home, thereby forcing the retaining bar tightly against the group of packages, after which both wedges are nailed to the horizontal bars 18 by nails 20 and suitable strips 22, cut to the proper length, are disposed at each side of the car between the opposed ends of the wedges in order to lock the latter in place against horizontal movement, the said strips being nailed to the horizontal bars, as by nails 23, in order to securely hold them in place.

As will be understood from the above description, after the wedges are driven tightly home, the retaining bars are securely maintained against their respective groups of packages and any movement of the car tending to force the latter toward the center of the car will further tighten the retaining bars against the wedges at their opposite ends and render movement of the packages still more diflicult. I thus eliminate any excessive compression strains on longitudinally extending timbers which might be snapped thereby for in accordance with my invention such strains are'taken up substantially entirely by the wedges and theretaining bars and operate merely to increase the firmness with which the retaining bars, and in turn the load, are held. Furthermore, by placing the wedges near the floor of the car no appreciable bulging effect upon the walls of the car is produced, so that possible damage to the car is avoided.

It will thus be apparent that I have provided means for bracing a load of the class described which requires but relatively little effort to erect, which is satisfactorily operative to retain the load in position in the car, which needs but a comparatively small amount of material for construction and may be installed relatively quickly. Moreover, no great skill is required to satisfactorily brace a load in accordance with my invention and uniform parts are employed throughout exce pt for the longitudinal strips 22 holding the wedges in place, which may be of greater or less length depending on the distance between the wedges, and, of course, the operation of sawing the strips to the proper length is a very simple one.

Thus my invention afl'ords many advantages over the braces heretofore employed in that not only is it moreeifective since the firmness with which the load is held in position is increased as the stresses exerted against the braces increase, but also a minimum amount of material and but a relatively short time is required for installation after the car is fully loaded. Consequently the expense involved in bracing the car load for transit in accordance with my invention is materially reduced below that incident to the employment of the forms of bracing heretofore generally utilized.

' It will be understood that while I have shown and particularly described a preferred form of the invention as it may be applied to a box car, many modifications in the structure and arrangement of the several parts will readily occur to those skilled in the art and may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. In combination with a railway car or the like having a load of material disposed on its floor adjacent each end thereof, retaining means disposed transversely of the car and respectively engaging said loads, a pair of wedges respectively disposed between one end of each of said retaining means and'the adjacent wall of the car operative to maintain said engagement of the retaining means,

and locking means operative to prevent displacement of the wedges.

2. In combination wlth a railway car or the like having a load of material disposed on its fioor adjacenteach end thereof, retaining means disposed transversely of the car and respectively engaging said loads, a pair of oppositely extending wedges respectively disposed between one end of each of said retaining means and the adjacent wall of the car and operative to maintain said engage,- ment of the retaining means, and locking means disposed between and in operative engagement with both of said wedges. v

3.-In combination with a railway car and of its ends, a wedge engaged in each of said notches, a bar disposed between each of said wedges and the adjacent wall of the car and extending longitudinally thereof, a plurality of locking means respectively adapted to extend between each pair of longitudinally aligned wedges, and means for securing each of said locking means to the adjacent longitudinally extending bar, whereby each of said loads of material is braced against the other through said bracing means.

5. The combination with a railway car or the like having a load of material disposed at each end thereof, of means for preventing shifting of said loads comprising transversely extending members respectively abutting the adjacent ends of the loads, wedging means interposed between the several ends of said members and the adjacent sides of the car and means interposed between the adjacent ends of said wedging means on each side of the car operative to maintain said wedging means in predetermined spaced relation.

6. The combination with a railway car or the like having a load of material disposed-at each end thereof, of means for preventing shifting of said loads comprising transverse-' ly extending members respectively abutting the adjacent ends of the loads, a wedge interposedbetween each end of each of said members and the adjacent side of the car, the wedges adjacent each lphd extending in the opposite direction froin those adjacent the other load, and means interposed between the oppositely directed wedges adjacent each side of the car operative to maintain said wedges in predetermined spaced relation.

7. A load brace for a railway car having piled material disposed in opposite ends thereof comprising a pair of bars disposed transversely ofthe car and respectively bearing against the piles of material, a wedge dis-' posed between each end of each of said bars and the adjacent wall of the car, and a plurality of locking means disposed substantially longitudinally of said car and each engaging a pair of oppositely directed wedges.

8. A load brace for a railway car comprising wedges operative to bear against the walls of the car, transversely extending bars engaged by said wedges and operative to prevent displacement of the load in the Car and locking means operative to prevent displace ment of the Wedges.

I 9. A load brace for a railway car comprising a wedge operative to bear against a Wall of the car, a transversely extending bar engaged by said Wedge and operative to prevent displacement of the load in the car, and means operative to prevent displacement of the wedge.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto-set my hand this 3rd day of September, 1930.

- JAMES B. CHALMERS. 

